Friday, 16 January 2009

Grant Talks Church of Hell

It seems to have been a day for demons and devilry, because just as we plug Cy Dethan's Falk project (see news story), Alan Grant pops up, talking about his new comic Church of Hell, which is on sale this month from Beserker Comics.

"If you want to atone for your sins, you go to an ordinary church and confess to a minister or priest. But if you want to embrace your sins, then the Church of Hell is for you," Alan explains. "Through the medium of the Priest of Hell, it is possible for sinners to do a deal with Satan... although, as Satan is also the Prince of Lies, things might not work out quite how the sinner expected them to."

Drawn by Wayne Nichols with cover art by Simon Bisley and Glenn Fabry, Church of Hell is the latest title from the company that has already published The Dead Comic by Bisley, Grant and Fabry. Promising "Some of the best horror artwork I've ever seen!" Alan says the Priest of Hell will feature in every story arc, "but each arc (normally four issues) will feature a different set of human beings and their unique circumstances.

"The original idea was crafted by Andy Ryan and Adam Brown, while I gave the story its unusual 'spin', Alan reveals. "It wasn't influenced by any other literature or media, because Church of Hell is completely unique; I've never come across anything which is even remotely like it.

"The first story arc concerns Dominic Raggar," he reveals, "whose evil starts off with a simple lie to his girlfriend, Cindy. But the lie is merely Dom's first step on the road to ruin - it quickly develops into illicit sex and the taking of Class A drugs, and ends in murder. Dom learns from the Priest that there are two directions he can move in - towards atonement of his sins, or towards consolidation of his evil.

"Story-wise, Church of Hell is like nothing else which currently exists - or indeed has ever existed - in the world of horror stories," Alan claims. "We show how the simplest of sins - in the first story, a lie - can quickly multiply until even the nicest character can become evil.

"We'll also be exploring some of the "forgotten" gods and goddesses of different cultures - the demons, the goddess of catastrophe, the god of multiple murder, and many others."

• Church of Hell can be ordered via Diamond Previews or direct from Beserker Comics, also publishers of Maura and Channel Evil.Official web site: www.churchofhellcomic.com

The site downthetubes.net, which began publishing in 1999, is edited by John Freeman whose credits include editor of Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, Star Wars Magazine, and Marvel UK titles such as Overkill, Death's Head II, Warheads and others. He's currently editor of the upcoming Strip Magazine for Print Media Productions.

About the Writers:

• Matthew Badham has written features for Judge Dredd: The Megazine, the Forbidden Planet International blog and more

• Jeremy Briggs contributes news, reviews, interviews and historical articles on British comics. He is a guest writer on Steve Holland's UK comics history blog, Bear Alley, and has written for Comics International, TV Zone, Spaceship Away and Omnivistascope.

• David Hailwood has written comic strips for various publications, including TOXIC, Accent UK, Bulletproof and Futurequake. He also writes comedy material for TV, and regularly contributes to the Temple APA (a showcase for UK comic writers and artists).

• Andy Luke is a writer who draws: he's s created the eponymous Andy Luke's Comic Book, Gran, Absence: a comic about epilepsy, Hold the Phones, It's Alex Jones, and graphic novel, The Watch Thief. He's written about comics too, mainly for Bugpowder.com, and has been involved with the Caption comics festival in Oxford. He currently lives in Belfast with a large box of pasta and a 7ft tall cigarette, and can be found online at http://andy-luke.com and http://awriterwhodraws.com

• Ian Wheeler is a freelance writer who also edited the highly-acclaimed British comics fanzine Eagle Flies Again.